The Material Handling Blog

Remaining competitive means staying ahead of retail's rapid changes, such as complex omnichannel business models, demanding planning cycles, and rising customer expectations. Retail leaders are coming together at this year's RILA LINK to tackle these challenges. They want integrated solutions to simplify operations and make customers happier.

Sales are on the rise again this holiday season and consumers are shopping in an omnichannel way. Black Friday, Cyber Monday and sales before and after the Thanksgiving holiday marked at least a week of special discounts and sales. It also marked a year over year increase in retail activity in the United States, spending an estimated $9.8 billion during Black Friday alone, according to Adobe Analytics. Originally a single day of sales, discounts and deals came early extending the sales period before Black Friday, potentially easing the Friday sales bump. In-store sales increased by 1.1%, while ecommerce sales rose by 8.5% year over year, according to MasterCard SpendingPulse. Final totals are still being tallied but reports from MasterCard SpendingPulse, Adobe Analytics and various consulting firms indicate that most likely due to the country’s inflation and economic pressures, consumers actively took advantage of the season’s special discounts, searching for the best deals. They are buying “closer-to-need” according to TD Cowen analysts.

The average box is 40% too large for its contents and eliminating excess volume would result in 24 million fewer truckloads per year in the United States, according to DHL, The Logistics Trend Radar. With increased focus on sustainability and supply chain impacts to a company’s bottom-line, the importance of packaging strategy has never been higher. Fortunately for supply chain leaders, packaging automation has continued to evolve to address this need and the time has never been better to consider how right-sized packaging could positively impact your supply chain.

Bastian Solutions will be present at RILA LINK in Orlando, FL this month. Joining the retail order fulfillment and automation conversation with thousands of supply chain executives to connect, learn and explore leading best practices. With over 2,000 retail supply chain leaders in one place, LINK is the perfect event for Bastian to connect with carriers, vendors and other key partners.

Bastian Solutions is excited to join supply chain and logistics professionals for the second annual Manifest trade show, the premiere gathering of industry leaders, innovators and investors for a showcase of innovation and transformation across the logistics and supply chain tech industry. Manifest brings unprecedented access to the people and technologies changing the way the world moves.

In this fast-paced industry where customers are looking for the fastest delivery and using multiple channels to complete their purchases, brands need to be nonstop active. Today, almost all consumers check reviews and compare prices both online and offline before making a purchase.

The internet, since its adoption in the 1990s, is an amazing place that consistently opens new doors and creates new opportunities. Business models continue to adapt to our new connected reality. Increasingly, consumers are working their way up the supply chain. Retailers first felt this push as customers are happy to cut brick and mortar stores out of their daily routine and make purchases directly from the warehouse through digital storefronts. This has led to the development and dominance of omnichannel distribution models, delivering a variety of goods and brands under one company. They are required to compete with online-only retailers like Amazon. This was a dramatic shift for the distribution center.